Entertainment

Flotilla Raid Inspires @BPGlobalPR Imitators on Twitter

It's official: The @[insert name here]GlobalPR Twitter account is a true blue meme. Following a raid by the Israeli navy on an aid flotilla headed to Gaza that left 10 aid workers dead, another satirical faux Twitter account was launched, @IsraelGlobalPR, closely followed by @HamasGlobalPR.

Last week we spoke to "Terry," the man behind fake Twitter account @BPGlobalPR, about his wildly popular micoblogging campaign against BP's handling of the gulf oil spill crisis — or we tried to at least; he wouldn't break character. At that time, his account had 55,000 followers; one week later, it has more than 100,000.

The popularity of @BPGlobalPR mostly arises from the timeliness of the tweets, their controversial nature, and the humor and wit behind the account. @IsraelGlobalPR and @HamaGlobalPR appear to be banking on a combination of similar factors in hopes of gaining viral success. They also seem to be sticking to their guns when it comes to staying in character, if these responses to our requests for an interview mean anything:

Yeah, don't expect any tweets about sunshine and puppies from these two. @IsraelGlobalPR launched on May 31 with the following tweet:

Currently, the account has nearly 5,000 followers and only follows one other Twitterer: @HamasGlobalPR, who has garnered 379 followers since it launched yesterday with this tweet:

So this is about the time that the pundits will start pointing and shouting, "Copy cat!" whilst hopping up in down in derision. And maybe they're right — to a certain degree. Faux Twitter accounts are nothing new, however; remember "Christopher Walken's" Twitter account, and, of course, Fake AP Stylebook? Still, Twitter has become a venue for an odd kind of performance art — hell, Shakespeare even had a shake at Twitter greatness — so it was only a matter of time before politics and art combined.

The thing that saves @IsraelGlobalPR from being a complete and utter re-run is an added layer of relevancy: The Israeli government's own efforts via YouTube and Twitter to quell the conflict. (Side note: The official IDF spokesperson account has around 3,990 followers). The result is an interesting loop: Governments embracing social media in order to spread their message, and then activist humorists appropriating that media in order to strike back — and doing so more successfully, we might add.

Yes, whoever is behind @IsraelGlobalPR probably should have found a more original name, but part of meme creation is a kind of branded recognition, so we can probably overlook that slight (Heyo, LOL [Insert animal here], F*ck Yeah [Insert random thing here] and Stuff [Group of people] [Hate/Like/Feel ambivalent about]).

The question now becomes: Is what @IsraelGlobalPR and @HamasGlobalPR are saying of value? Can social media actually be a valuable place in which to discuss such an ancient, deeply-rooted conflict? What do you think?

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